So, the Microsoft announcement - taking place as I write this, 01:45 in my timezone - turns out to be a bigger deal than expected. Microsoft just announced it's going full-on hardware - the company announced a new tablet called 'Surface', and boy, is this thing something to behold. Microsoft's hardware partners? They're not happy right now. Update: Here's Microsoft's official Surface site. I believe someone coined the phrase 'sexy as a succubus' in the comments about Vizio? Stealin' it! Update II: They aren't just taking the iPad head-on - this is a straight-up MacBook Air competitor.

Sort of but with an optional version with a much larger battery. The Eee Pad has a 3300 mAh battery that extends the life by ~16 hours (measured playing 720p video). Many laptops are between 4400 to mAh 7200 mAh but they are limited in battery space because they need room for other components.

You can buy replacement 7200mAh laptop batteries for $20 with free shipping and they are 1 lb. A medium sized laptop is 6 lbs and a heavy laptop is 10 lbs. So 6 7200mAh batteries would be about $100 and weigh about as much as a medium sized laptop and give you 43,200 mAh which would work out to like 200 hrs of use on a tablet. There are lighter/more expensive battery technologies that could improve that more but you get the idea.

Instead of a $1,000 laptop with more horse power than you need and a 6 hour battery we could replace them with tablets ($500) + dock ($150) that will be close to the same size and weight that will destroy the battery life of a laptop.